More Than Three Seconds
by Oneturtledove
Summary: He's got it bad, and that is just not enough time. Mid-Season 2


"I come bearing junk food," Adam announced as he walked through Lindsay's door.

"You know what I love about this friendship?"

"What?"

"You bring me food and I never have to get up from the couch to get the door."

"I spoil you. Did you start watching the TV commercial special without me? I thought this was going to be a tradition!"

"This is just a commercial for it."

"Oh, good. Do you want this cookie dough cooked or raw?"

"I think raw."

He nodded and took the bags into the kitchen, putting the ice-cream into the freezer and the cookie dough into the fridge before he came back and joined her on the couch.

"Do you have sweet tea, Lindsay?"

"Mm-hmm," she nodded, bringing the mason jar to her lips and smiling.

"Well?"

She reached over to the side table and handed him an ice cold mason jar filled with sweet tea.

"I just made it like three seconds before you got here."

"You rock."

"Yeah, well you're nice."

He chuckled and moved her feet off the couch, then sat down and rolled his eyes as his lap was immediately taken over. She wasn't shy about inserting herself into his personal bubble, which worked out since his personal bubble was almost non-existent. It hadn't been that way at first but a few fights over the remote and goodnight hugs had changed things. He remembered one particularly bad day at work, waiting until her rant was over, then taking her into his arms. She'd been as stiff as a board and he had chuckled, holding on tighter. _"This is a hug Lindsay. Don't fight it, it can smell fear."_ Ever since that moment he'd been chipping away at her gigantic personal bubble until it was almost as small as his was.

"So how was work?"

"Look how set in our ways we've become, talking about work like we're an old married couple."

"So not a good day then?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. He smiled and shook his head.

"Let's just say even our high speed banter is going to be relaxing after a day at the lab."

"Yikes."

"Yeah. What did you do today?"

"Got up early, went to the stables and rode for a while, came home and cleaned this place from top to bottom, found one of your Nintendo controllers, talked to my mom for an hour, succumbed to another pair of boots on clearance, finished a book, talked to my mom again, made spaghetti sauce in the crock pot, took down the last of the Christmas decorations, and basically that is where you came in."

"Full day. You look tired."

"Kind of."

"Wanna take a rain check?"

"You can't take a rain check on New Years, Adam. You only have one day a year to cash it in."

"You're gonna power through to midnight?"

"Yeah. I ain't faint of heart."

He chuckled and kicked his shoes off, then leaned back and propped his feet up on the coffee table. They sat in silence for a while, her completely zoning out to the inane TV special while he absentmindedly rubbed her feet. He couldn't really remember a time when they hadn't been comfortable around each other, even the first time they had spent time together outside of work, it was almost as if they had always been friends. Things clicked, they both let their strange sense of humor hang out and there was something special about them both being outsiders. Sure they got along with their New York native co-workers, but it was nice to have known another world that natives didn't seem to realize even existed. They'd still grown up in different places, but it was enough to tie them together.

"So if you were in Montana, what would you be doing right now?"

"Provided I wasn't working? Hanging out at my parents house with the family. Changing all the clocks to one minute before midnight so all the kids would go to bed. Taking the snowmobiles out with my brothers and riding until there's ice on my eyelashes. Playing Balderdash until three in the morning and chucking stuff at the boys when they cheat."

"Sounds perfect."

"What about you? If you were in Arizona what would you be doing?"

"Probably at my parents house too. My little sister would be running around the house trying to stay awake begging me to chase after her like I'm a dragon just one more time. My mom would be getting after my dad, telling him to quit eating so much summer sausage because it's going to give him heartburn, and then he'd have me sneak him some more when she wasn't looking."

"I guess it's like they say. Families are all the same everywhere."

"Are you homesick?" he asked softly, looking over at her and noting the way she sighed before answering.

"Yes."

"What do you miss?"

"Sunday dinners with the family," she started, a wistful look coming into her eyes. "The smell of Montana in the morning. No sales tax. My crappy apartment that was even smaller than this one. Cramming all my nephews and my niece into the apartment for sleep overs. Going outside and knowing that when you take a deep breath, all you're breathing in is air. Just pure air."

"You can take the girl out of the country," he chuckled.

"So I've been told."

"I didn't mean to make you sad, Lindsay."

"I'm not sad. I'm finding New York things that I'll miss when I'm away from here too, so it's all balancing out."

"All night Chinese places."

"First thing on my list."

"Pig."

She chuckled and yawned, resting her head against the arm of the couch.

"You're not going to make it."

"Yes I am. I just need fuel."

"I'll throw the hot wings in the oven and bring you one of everything else."

"You're awesome, dude."

"I try, dudette."

She chuckled and sat up a little, taking another drink of tea.

"Hey so, I was thinking."

"You were? It's a monumental moment folks!"

"Adam."

"She's at the twenty, the ten, she could go all the way!"

"Adam!"

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking," she started again. "That I don't really want to ring in the new year with Kevin Nealon."

"So what should we do instead?"

"You promise you won't make fun of me?"

"Sure."

"I have a huge hankering to watch _Dharma and Greg_."

"Lindsay, do you own it on DVD?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"You like this idea?"

"Yes!"

She laughed and got off the couch, searching the drawers in the entertainment center until she found what she was looking for.

"If you tell me that you also like _Mad About You_, I'm gonna love you forever."

"I bawled when Mabel was born."

"You're awesome."

"I'm surprised you like those shows. Aren't you a boy?"

"I appreciate good comedic timing, okay?"

"You're pretty awesome too."

* * *

><p>Three hours later they had changed the TV back to the Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve and Lindsay was slowly losing the battle with sleep. Her head would slowly drop to the side and then snap back up, causing Adam to laugh at her every time.<p>

"Lindsay go to bed."

"But…" she said, pointing at the clock.

"You're tired."

"I'm okay. I just need… can I…?" she asked, lifting his arm away from his side.

"Yeah, c'mere."

She snuggled into him and he held her close, feeling extraordinarily lucky that he was sitting here next to her.

"Hey."

"Hmm?"

"We kissin' at midnight?"

She snorted and smacked his chest.

"I was bein' serious. It's tradition."

"We kiss and it throws off the whole friendship balance."

"So are we?"

"Tell you what. If I'm still awake at midnight, you can kiss me for no longer than three seconds."

"Deal."

They fell into silence and watched as Dick Clark gave running commentary of the ball dropping.

"3… 2… 1… Happy New Year!"

He looked down at her leaning against his chest, and found that she was asleep. Gently, he ran his hand over her hair and slowly leaned down, dropping a kiss to her forehead, then one to the end of her nose. She let out a soft sigh and snuggled closer and he seriously debated just staying like that all night. It probably wouldn't be awkward and she most likely wouldn't be mad, but they both liked their friendship the way it was. No reason to jinx it.

Carefully he picked her up, standing slowly to get his balance, the carrying her into her bedroom. She sighed a little in her sleep as he lowered her to the bed, her hand reaching out for him as he pulled away. He didn't want to wake her up, but he couldn't help leaning down to touch his lips to her forehead again.

"Happy New Year," he whispered, thankful that she had fallen asleep because with the way his heart was pounding, there was no way he could have kept a midnight kiss to less than three seconds.


End file.
